The Strands: Social Organisation

Achievement Objectives and Indicators: Level 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Students will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of:

• why people belong to groups;
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • explain what a group is;
  • describe a number of groups that people belong to;
  • give examples of the benefits of belonging to groups.

• the different roles people fulfil within groups.
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • describe roles that an individual can have within a group and across a range of groups;
  • give examples of how people may acquire roles;
  • explain what people do when they fulfil particular roles.

Students will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of:

• how and why groups are organised within communities and societies;
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • describe a range of groups;
  • describe the functions of those groups;
  • explain ways in which people are part of various communities.

• how participation within groups involves both responsibilities and rights.
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • identify the rights and responsibilities individuals have within a group;
  • explain how rights and responsibilities might vary in different groups;
  • give examples of ways in which rights have accompanying responsibilities within particular groups.

Students will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of:

• how leadership of groups is acquired and exercised;
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • identify leaders in different groups and situations;
  • describe ways people can become leaders (e.g., through inheritance, election, appointment, use of force, volunteering);
  • explain how different styles of leadership affect members of groups;
  • describe ways leaders seek to resolve differences within and between groups.

• how and why people make and implement rules and laws.
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • explain why groups have rules and laws;
  • describe processes that groups use to make rules and laws (e.g., discussion and agreement, meetings, local government processes, parliamentary processes);
  • give examples of what happens when rules and laws are broken.

Students will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of:

• how people organise themselves in response to challenge and crisis;
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • identify types of challenges and crises that people face (e.g., social, technological, economic, political, cultural);
  • identify groups trained to help in different types of crises;
  • explain how groups and individuals can work together to deal with challenges and crises.

• how and why people exercise their rights and meet their responsibilities.
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • identify the rights people have at different ages and in different groups;
  • describe processes that can be used to exercise rights within society;
  • describe factors (e.g., economic, cultural, age-related, status-related, religious) that shape people's responsibilities and the ways in which people meet these responsibilities.

Students will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of:

• how systems of government are organised and affect people's lives;
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • identify the features of different political systems;
  • explain how decisions (e.g., about franchise, legislative processes, and policy) are made and implemented in a parliamentary democracy and in a contrasting system;
  • explain how government decisions affect people's lives.

• how and why people seek to gain and maintain social justice and human rights.
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • describe factors (e.g., legislation, social and economic status, ethnicity, gender, war, working conditions) that lead individuals and groups to seek social justice and human rights;
  • explain ways people press for changes in relation to social justice and human rights or resist such changes;
  • explain the effects of change or lack of change in social justice and human rights on the lives of people;
  • explain the role of governments and institutions in ensuring that people's human rights are respected.

Students will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of:

• how and why people organise themselves to review systems and institutions in society;
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • identify some types of institutions in society (e.g., families, political parties, religious institutions, education systems);
  • explain why some systems or institutions are easier to change than others;
  • explain reasons for changes and people's motivations for seeking change;
  • describe procedures for reviewing systems or institutions and ways of making changes (e.g., through referenda, petitions, marches, conferences).

• the effects of changes in society on people's rights, roles, and responsibilities.
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • identify changes in society (e.g., technological, social, political, economic) that have affected people's rights, roles, and responsibilities;
  • explain ways in which rights, roles, and responsibilities have changed in response to changes in society;
  • describe how changes in rights, roles, and responsibilities affect the interactions of people.

Students will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of:

• how and why international organisations become established and influence people and societies;
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • identify a variety of international organisations and describe their purposes and activities;
  • describe the development of an international organisation;
  • describe the impact of international organisations on individuals, cultures, communities, and nations.

• how communities and nations meet their responsibilities and exercise their rights.
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • describe how the establishment of rights (e.g., through treaties, bills of rights, constitutions, declarations) places obligations on communities and nations;
  • explain how communities within a nation can exert pressure to uphold rights;
  • explain how nations exert pressure internationally to uphold individual and national rights.

Students will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of:

• different ideas about how society should be organised;
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • identify a range of ideas about how society should be organised;
  • explain why individuals and groups (e.g., political parties, interest groups, minority groups) hold differing ideas about how society should be organised;
  • explain the consequences of people holding differing ideas about how society should be organised.

• the nature of reform and the impact reforms have on the rights, roles, and responsibilities of individuals and communities.
  
  Students could demonstrate such knowledge and understandings when they:
  • identify particular social, political, economic, and legal reforms and the relationships between them;
  • describe reforms that have affected people's rights, roles, and responsibilities;
  • explain the impact of some major reforms on the rights, roles, and responsibilities of individuals and communities.